Category: Bible Study Tools

United Church of God: Be willing to confront friends about their sins, and be patient with them as they struggle to overcome.

August 12, 2025
Becky Sweat

Sometimes the differences we see in people are not just varying personalities, but behavior that goes against God’s laws. Now, sometimes people sin willfully, but that’s not what I’m addressing here. Rather, we might have friends who are generally striving to live God’s way of life, yet they’re doing something that is contrary to biblical teachings, which they don’t seem to be aware of. They might not even realize how they’re hurting themselves or others. In that situation, we need to be willing to go to them with our concerns (Galatians 6:1, Matthew 18:15). Once we’ve done that, we should allow them the time they need to change their ways.

We should be supportive and patient with other people as they go through their Christian journeys and God helps them see the flaws they need to work on. This includes not overreacting or harshly judging them for their offenses, and not gossiping about their faults.

This is a teaching echoed throughout the Bible. We’re instructed to “Make allowance for each other’s faults” (Colossians 3:13, NLT), “Uphold the weak” and “Be patient with all” (1 Thessalonians 5:14), and with longsuffering, to be “bearing with one another in love”

(Ephesians 4:2). When we’re patient with others as they struggle to overcome their shortcomings, it strengthens our connections with them as they will be able to tell we want what’s best for them, that we’re not going to give up on them, and we’re committed to the relationships.

United Church of God: Learn to accept and appreciate those who think differently than you.

August 12, 2025
Becky Sweat

You might write off someone as a possible friend just because he or she has a different personality from you or doesn’t share many of the same interests and viewpoints. But if you do that, you can miss out on building a potentially great friendship. The truth is, there might still be things you can connect on. You might also discover that those differing interests or perspectives makes that person fascinating to be around.

The Bible instructs us to show respect to everyone, and essentially value all types of people (1 Peter 2:17). That includes those with backgrounds, personalities, preferences and viewpoints that differ from yours [I’m not referring here to matters of definite right and wrong, but rather to varying ways of thinking that are morally neutral]. Remember that everyone has something unique to offer. Learning to appreciate individuals for who they are is an important way to strengthen connections. Others will feel comfortable being around you, because they know they don’t have to fit a certain mold to be your friend.

For instance, some of my closest friends are introverts, while I’m 100 percent extrovert. If one of these friends plans a trip to visit us, she may need intermittent breaks to be alone while she’s staying with us (so she can recharge), while I could chat nonstop. Or, my local friends may not “need” to go out to lunch as much as I do. Understanding their needs, even when that’s not the way I’m wired, has kept these friendships going for many years.
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United Church of God: Be genuinely happy for your friend’s accomplishments.

August 12, 2025
Becky Sweat

The first part of Romans 12:15 says to “rejoice with those who rejoice.” Truth be told, we’re not always inclined to do this. Many times in our dog-eat-dog world, people find themselves competing with friends, sinking to envy if a companion one-ups them. But there’s no way two people can be close if one is jealous of the other.

In a strong, healthy relationship, friends rejoice in each other’s achievements, successes and blessings. There’s no rivalry, envy, comparisons between them, or one person trying to out-do the other. Each person wants the other to do well, even if it means being outshone. Good friends find true happiness in each other’s happiness, always cheer

ing the other on to do his or her very best. That includes when your friend gets the job promotion you wanted, goes on a luxurious vacation you could never afford, or is accepted to the college you couldn’t get into.

We need to remind ourselves that as wonderful as these achievements are, what’s most important is that we’re the kind of people who want to build up others and cheer them on to success (as we’re told to do in 1 Thessalonians 5:11), even if that means they’re going to pass us up. Doing so strengthens our relationships, and it’s also the kind of character God wants to see in us.
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United Church of God: Schedule friend time


August 12, 2025
Becky Sweat

Genesis 2:18 states, “it is not good that the man should be alone.” It’s clear that God designed us to need companionship. For that reason alone, we should make time in our busy schedules to build and maintain friendships. We’ll never be able to achieve truly close connections with other people if we don’t regularly spend time with them.

As busy as most of us are, that can be a challenge. Still, it can be done. We just need to be more intentional about making it happen. <img class="alignright" src="https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/make-new-friends-calendar-make-new-friends-calendar-background-386111018.jpg" alt="" width="389" height="292" /> That means getting out your calendar and planning times when you can get together with friends, whether that’s to share a meal or an activity like a game of pickleball, or just meeting for coffee. With out-of-town friends, I schedule “phone dates” with them. I’ve found that just one in-depth phone conversation every couple of months can go a long way in maintaining a close connection.

If you can’t find time in your schedule for friend time, reevaluate your commitments to make some openings in your calendar. If you spend multiple hours a day on social media, you might replace some of that time with face-to-face socializing. Another idea is to do some of the routine tasks and activities that you have to do, such as grocery shopping or working out at the gym, with a friend. You can chat and catch up while the two of you are getting something done.
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UNSHACKLED! : Denise Cooper – Drugs, Impairment, Prostitution

She survived being dragged from a car for a block, but Denise Cooper almost didn’t survive her own bad choices.

Learn how she did in her true testimony, another dramatization on UNSHACKLED!
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United Church of God: Friendship is one of God’s greatest gifts.

August 12, 2025
Becky Sweat

However, good friendships don’t “just happen”—especially in our fast-paced, digitally-focused world.

If we’re going have close connections with others, we must be intentional about it.

These seven practices will help build and maintain friendships.

I have a plaque in my office which reads, “Friends are God’s way of taking care of us.” While God is our ultimate caregiver, He certainly places individuals in our lives to encourage and support us. I can think of many times over the years when I was tired, down or just needing some laughs, and then I’d get a call or an impromptu visit by a friend and suddenly I felt much better. I can’t imagine going through life without these special “people connections.”

This is the kind of companionship Solomon described in Ecclesiastes 4:9, 11-12. He wrote, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor . . . Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm . . . Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him.”

Of course these kind of relationships don’t just happen. They have to be nurtured. Yet, in our fast-paced society, where there’s always something urgent that needs to be done or should have been done yesterday, close friendships are becoming hard to come by. Today just about everyone is overbusy, overstretched and overscheduled. Between work, classes, household chores and family commitments, we may have convinced ourselves there isn’t enough time to devote to friendships.

We might try to rely on social media to meet our need for people contact. So we’ll spend a few minutes now and then sharing posts about what’s happening in our lives or we’ll comment on what other people post. Or, perhaps we’ll send text messages to friends to say “hi” and let them know we’re thinking of them. These things can help us stay connected on some level. However, they can’t replace the interactions we might have in-person or over the phone. They’re not the way to build close connections.

Sadly, recent research has shown that many Americans can’t name even three friends with whom they can have heart-to-heart conversations with. It’s not that they don’t have people in their lives; it’s that they don’t feel deep connections with those individuals.

Bible Study Tools – Daniel 2:20 – Daniel answered and said That is, he began his prayer, as Jacchiades observes, or his thanksgiving, and expressed it in the following manner: blessed be the name of God for ever and ever.

A form of blessing God, or a wish that he may be blessed by men for evermore; for there is that in his name, in his nature, in his perfections, and in his works, which require that praise be given him now, and to all eternity: for wisdom and might are his;

“wisdom” in forming the scheme of things, and “might” or power in the execution of them; “wisdom” in revealing the secret of the dream to Daniel, and “might” to accomplish the various events predicted in it:

for what Daniel here and afterwards observes has a very peculiar regard to the present affair, for which his heart was warm with gratitude and thankfulness.

Bible Study Tools – Daniel 2:19 – Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision.

That is, after Daniel and his companions had importunately sought the Lord by prayer, the secret of the king’s dream, and the interpretation of it, were made known to Daniel, and to him only; he being the person designed in Providence to be raised to great honour and dignity by means of it;

this was done either the same night, or the night following, and, as some think, in a dream, and that he dreamed the same dream Nebuchadnezzar did, which he remembered, though the king forgot it; or, however, the same image was represented, to him, whether sleeping or waking, and the meaning of it given him: then Daniel blessed# the God of heaven:

gave thanks to him, that he had heard his prayer, and indulged him in his request; which thanksgiving, blessing, or praise, is expressed in the following words:

Crosswalk : Humble Yourself Before God

Casey B. Hough
Updated Aug 07, 2026

In keeping with the last warning, we conclude by reflecting upon our need to humble ourselves before God.

Philippians 2:3 instructs us to “do nothing that is motivated by selfishness,” but rather in “humility consider others as more important.”

In the same manner, James 4:7 and 10 teach us of our need to “submit to God” and “humble ourselves before Him” so that we might be “exalted by the Lord.”

1 Peter 5:5-6 echoes the same instruction with the promise that God “gives grace to the humble.”

No matter what situation we find ourselves in, the right response is always humility before God.

We cannot and must not exalt ourselves.

If God desires such exaltation for us, it is up to him.

Our responsibility it so be humble before our God.

YouTube: METHUSELAH — The Movie | 969 Years, And He Died The Year The Water Came | 4K

Sacred Dawn
94 subscribers

153 views
Jul 23, 2026

He lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years.

No one in scripture lived longer.

And his father gave him a name that reads less like a blessing than a warning:

Methuselah — when he is gone, it shall be sent.

Genesis gives him four verses.

Four verses for the longest life ever recorded, and not one word of explanation.

This film is the rest of it.

THE ARITHMETIC NOBODY POINTS AT

The strangest thing about Methuselah is not how long he lived.

It is when he stopped. Genesis 5 says he was one hundred and eighty-seven when his son Lamech was born, and that Lamech was one hundred and eighty-two when Noah was born, which makes Methuselah three hundred and sixty-nine years old the year Noah came into the world.

Genesis 7 says Noah was six hundred when the waters came.

Three hundred and sixty-nine, and six hundred, is nine hundred and sixty-nine.

The oldest man who ever lived died in the year of the flood.

The text does not draw attention to it.

It simply lets the numbers sit in two different chapters and waits for someone to add them up.